Taxes targeting a smaller group have a “divide and conquer” component which taxes people in a manner disproportional to their representation. That is the issue with the current American tax system. That is true for property taxes (I do not own property), death tax (my parents have nothing to leave me), gas tax (I live in the city), sales/fair tax (I have little discretionary income), capital gains tax (I do not invest), our current income tax (I’m exempt, its not mine they are raising) and so forth.

In order to balance taxation and representation you need a contributing population that reaches across most segments of society and engages people in the political process in a responsible manner.

My proposal is to address these issues by eliminating all taxes except for the income tax. In what the income tax is concerned eliminate every single exemption and establish that the higher bracket can be AT MOST TWICE AS BIG as the lower bracket with one single schedule applying to individual and corporate

It is similar to a flat/single rate tax, but it is more palatable to the whole of the population while still achieving our primary objective of balancing taxation with representation.

The income tax, even though it makes us cringe, is the broader reaching and the one that has the ability to involve all segments of the population in a “equal/fair” way regarding the role of the government in our society. The issue we have is the current monster created with the objective of fostering class warfare and alienating the sector of society which pays taxes so to leave the government unchecked. That would go away with the simplified schedule and the elimination of the exemptions — those are the two key points in this proposal. If you keep any exemptions, even if you go to a flat tax, we are not balancing taxation with representation and we are creating a corrupt system.

With this proposal the wealthiest pay say 20%, those of us making minimum wage pay 10%. This achieves 3 things. (1) government money changes being from being someone else’s money to the money “I” pay in, and I see it clearly not in pennies and dollars when I buy something but as hundreds and thousands as they really are as I’m reminded of that every 2 weeks when I get my paycheck; (2) it fosters entrepreneurship and attracts capital and industry from all over the world and; (3) it puts the government in check eliminating the freebee mentality that corrupts the political arena and us as voters.

We would end up with a system that is extremely simple, lightweight, efficient. 90% of the people would not have to file a tax return. Only companies and those getting income from other sources (real estate rentals for example) would need to do it. Business would not have to track or collect sales tax. Seniors would not have to worry about having their homes/farms taken away because they cannot afford property taxes. Money would come back to small business and communities as people no longer have to go to the internet to avoid sales taxes, etc, etc.

For those people that would pay less 10% in income tax with the current system we get a salary increase to make up for the fact that they would now be paying it. The idea is that their take home would not decrease. This would be done through a tax credit to companies and would be progressively phased out over 5 years. By then companies would have had time to benefit from or readjust to then new tax structure and can afford it on their own.

This idea is something that can be implemented at the state level. For example, if NJ gets rid of all its state and local taxes as described and institutes an income tax based on this model it will create tremendous influx of capital, people and industry from other states, particularly NY. This will create a domino effect where state after state is pressured into adopting the new model.

And, of course, the main thing is that now the government gets its money from a tap every single person that works for a living is watching as opposed to a fire hose they control.

“Nor is it a tax on land, for we would not tax all land, but only land having a value irrespective of its improvements, and would tax that in proportion to that value. ”
and
“But if we tax land values, there will be no less land.”

So land can be reclassified and/or revalued resulting in less land available to tax.

A poorer person only able to afford the land but not the improvements would pay the same taxes as a person that purchased the land, improved it, and gained from the improvements resulting in no benefit to the poor.

“The value of land does not come from the exertion of labor on land,..”
This simply is nonsense – the land on which a city is built has much more value than that of a plot of land in the desert 100 miles from civilization precisely because labor was exerted on the land providing jobs, housing, and business opportunities.

Strongly suggest read ‘FairTax – The Truth’ and see how the FairTax really works.

The fair tax is the only reform idea that does not seize wealth involuntarily. Taxes should be consumption based and not wealth based. The fair tax does not tax prosperity and productivity …These are foundational principles of liberty if you cant support, you wont get my support.

I don’t care if the fair tax RATE is 50%….I still choose when or if to pay it. I still get my whole paycheck and I am acutely aware of the burden of govt. taxes. I can meet my needs and pay no tax, and only pay taxes on my wants.

A 10% tax voluntary tax on annual increase for individuals ONLY is my preferred taxation — it’s good enough for God, should be good enough for man. Same tax whether healthy or sick, rich or poor, old or young, married or single, kids or no kids. That 10% tax revenue split up between community (40%), county (30%), state (20%), federal (10%), and put most services back to the local levels where our votes count the most. Second choice is a single sales tax on goods and services at the time of purchase, split in the same proportion among the different levels of government. If communities or counties or states want to exempt certain of their population from sales taxes on certain items (such as basic food commodities), then they can do so for THEIR share of the sales tax.

The Flat tax still confiscates private property and inhibits productivity.

The Single Tax: Now we’re talkin!

The Single Tax, by the way, is closest to what Jfeheley wants: You only pay for what you take — not what you make!

There are benefits to the Fair Tax Act but they are lost when you look at the details of what this bill brings. Cut out the proposed taxes on services and fuel, cut out the prebate and make it have unchangeable growth caps then you may have a bill that will work.

We really need to cut the spending in Washington prior to enacting this kind of legislation. The reason is that if we dump the current unfair tax code the government still has a 1.34 trillion dollar budget that they have to steal money to accommodate. Without reducing this appetite ANY tax code is bad.

Our current income tax code began as a flat income tax when the 16th Amendment was enacted in 1913. People were taxed 1% on the first $20,000 and 7% on income over $500,000. Less than 1% of the population earned over $500,000 in 1913. It was essentially a flat tax on income given more than 99% were taxed 1%. Another flat tax on income merely turns the clock back 97 years but will eventually morph back into the multi tiered, convoluted, increasingly oppressive, heavy progressive tax we have today only faster thanks to the thousands of lobbyists today that didn’t exist in 1913.

There is a reason Karl Marx included a heavy progressive tax on income as a plank in his Communist Manifesto. he understood gradually increasing the tax on productivity will discourage people from being productive and lose their desire to work. They will then turn to the state for their dependency. We have seen this happening for the last 97 years. It’s time to break that chain by enacting The Fair Tax Act.

I propose a basic tax system where we only pay for what we as individuals want. An example would be a gas tax that is used only for anything involved with building and maintaining roads. The more an individual uses the roads the more an individual pays. Never paying for things like someone else’s health insurance etc. unless it is voluntary charity. and.. Voluntary charity would help others in need far more than any government program ever would.